Re: Liquidate

: : : One
usage of the verb liquidate is "to kill". In the movie "The Wizard of Oz", the
witch is destroyed with water, and, I think, the Tinman comments "So, you liquidated
her". The use of "liquidation" was popular in spy genre and other cold war fiction.
Is there any connection to the movie or was "liquidation" (to kill) in common
usage prior?

: : It was in common use in mid to late 19th century England -
probably because liquidation of a company described the winding-up process which
followed its going bankrupt, after which the company was 'dead'.

: liquidate
v by 1924 to kill A Soviet euphemism [based on Russian _likvidirovat_, "liquidate,
wind up"]
: From _dictionary of American Slang, Third Edition_ by R.L.
Chapman

: liquidate v. 1 [mid-19C] (US) to pay one's debts. 2 [1930s+] (orig.
US) to kill someone. [ is SE in UK. euph. used during the Stalinist era
in the former USSR]
: From _Cassell's Dictionary of Slang_ by Jonathon
Green